All our improvement work for our breast cancer patients has helped the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance to the finals of a top partnership award.

The WYH Cancer Alliance, in conjunction with national charity Breast Cancer Now**, has been nominated for the Best Not-For-Profit In Partnership With The NHS in this year's Health Services Journal Partnership Awards. The winners will be announced  next Thursday. 

The alliance brings together all the hospitals in West Yorkshire to share practice. 

At CHFT we have improved communication around access to the local Clinical Co-ordinator supporting breast care nurses (some of our fab team are pictured here celebrating Julie Bottomley's 40th birthday)  as a single point of contact. Nurses are also producing a video for GPs and patients to explain what to expect when they are first referred to the breast unit.

Airedale has reduced waiting times for chemotherapy with the provision of a chemotherapy bus and also improved staff morale also improved due to greater variety in their work.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals have new information packs with specific information according to tumour type and the opportunity to add in new information at each stage of treatment.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust reviewed and updated their whole pathway of care for breast cancer patients, including ensuring all patients are offered Holistic Needs Assessments at the start and end of treatment.

Partnership with the Cancer Alliance, which began in June 2017, has facilitated the sharing of learning and good practice across the acute hospital Trusts in West Yorkshire and Harrogate area and the driving of innovation at scale across its constituent organisations.

** Breast Cancer Now, the UK’s largest breast cancer charity, provides insight into the latest research, most up-to-date guidelines, evidence of best practice, and detailed understanding of the needs and priorities of people affected by breast cancer, informed by feedback from those who access its information and support. It has 16 years' experience of improving breast cancer services across the country, to create an approach that is centrally organised but owned by those on the frontline.

Beverley Forkes,  a patient advocate for Breast Cancer Now, said:  "I felt that breast cancer had stolen much of my confidence and outgoing nature, so I saw the opportunity to get involved with the service pledge as a chance to do something that I felt was important.

"I was struggling with coming to terms with my cancer; I felt upset, I lacked confidence and was so emotional that I wondered how my life could ever be normal again. Breast Cancer Now made me feel strong. It was a good process. I realised that I could make things happen. Receiving cancer treatment leaves you feeling disempowered, but I realised I could change that."